Monitoring Particles in the Air

As a physical scientist and station chief for the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, John Barnes' specialty is lidar (light detection and ranging), often referred to as laser radar, which he uses to identify and measure particles in the atmosphere.

Michigan Sea Grant Oversees Successful Habitat Reconstruction

Michigan Sea Grant is overseeing a long-term restoration project to restore fish spawning habitat for native fish species. An acre of rock reefs were constructed in the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River in the spring of 2012 — and fish are already using the reefs. “It is science in action,” said Jennifer Read, assistant director of Michigan Sea Grant and project lead. “We were still constructing reefs a few hundred feet away, and yet, here they were…”

Phytoplankton - tiny plant-like organisms drifting through the great, vast ocean - are barely visible to the naked eye, and some are visible only through a microscope. Yet, when they are thriving, it is possible to see them from as far away as space. Their location is marked by swirling patterns of bright blues and greens that give the ocean a slick, marbled appearance, like oil on water.